Whedon said at the time that Hiddleston’s absence was to keep the superhero team-up flick from feeling "overstuffed," but now the actor is opening up about the real reason he wasn’t a part of Age of Ultron.

Hiddleston told Digital Spy that he was originally slated to appear during the film’s dream sequence, when the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) hypnotizes the members of the Avengers to distract them from an ongoing battle.

Loki was, of course, set to make an appearance in Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) dream, but the mere appearance of the mischievous Norse god -- who was part of the villainous threat in the first Avengers film and has been known to possess mind control powers of his own -- was enough to confuse moviegoers about the film’s true villain.

"In test screenings, audiences had overemphasized Loki's role, so they thought that because I was in it, I was controlling Ultron, and it was actually imbalancing [sic] people's expectations," he revealed, telling him that both Whedon and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige reached out to explain why his part would be cut.

"It made sense to me when I saw the film," admitted Hiddleston, who will reprise his role in Thor: Ragnarok and the two-part Avengers finale, Infinity War. "Ultron was the bad guy, that was important. That was why Loki wasn’t in it."